FAQ

Special thanks to Dirtrash, a member of the GTA Content Creator Hub Discord server (https://invite.gg/cchub) who has made a major contribution to the FAQ page.

Version 1; updated on 16 June 2020.

General Questions

  • Why should I use GTALens instead of Rockstar Games Social Club?

GTALens offers many advantages over Rockstar Games Social Club. Notably, the stats found on GTALens are more detailed and provide a more accurate description of jobs.

  • How do I register to access the job catalogue?

First of all, navigate to the registration page. Log into Social Club, launch GTA 5, enter the creator and make a job (stunt and land races are easiest). Return to GTALens and click “Generate Job Name.” Set the name of the job to the one generated and publish. Copy your job’s link from Social Club and paste it where prompted on the registration page. It is recommended to delete the job once you have registered. You can find a YouTube guide here.

  • Why is registration so complicated?

In order to provide the best service possible, GTALens requires that users actually play GTA Online and are interested in the information being provided. The registration process ensures that both of these criteria are met.

  • Is it possible to put the registration code into my SC status instead?

No, this method does not work because Social Club membership does not guarantee that users own a copy of GTA 5. Moreover, something like status check procedure is quite a challenge in terms of programming.

  • Is it safe to register on GTALens? Will you have access to my Social Club profile info?

No, not at all. Only job info is fetched. We can’t get access to your profile unless you provide us your Social Club password :)

Jobs Catalogue

  • I just registered and the first thing I see are jobs sorted by relevance. What does it mean and how jobs are actually arranged?

Sorting by relevance is a key feature of GTALens. The relevance is determined by the complex algorithm that takes in account dozens of factors, such as a number of likes, launches, unique players, update date, a number of updates without any changes and many more. It also examines a job name and a description.

  • Is it possible to sort jobs also by update date, likes, etc. how you do on Social Club?

You have much more options than you do on SC! Currently these options are the following:

  • Relevance: explained earlier.

  • Trending: jobs which have had an uptick in plays and/or likes.

  • Update date: the last time the creator versioned their job.

  • Newest: shows the most recently created jobs.

  • Rating: the highest ratio of likes to dislikes. Jobs with a small number of likes are not included when you sort jobs by rating.

  • Reviews rating: jobs having the highest rating which is based on users’ reviews go first in the list.

  • Alphabetically: names in alphabetical order.

  • Times played: how many times a job has been played.

  • Players count: how many people played a job.

  • SC sync date: the latest jobs fetched from Social Club.

  • What is the “Select jobs” category and why isn't my job in Community Select?

Jobs are only considered Select when they have: at least 14 launches by 4 unique users, at least 4 likes, at least 10% "Rockstar" rating and 20% "proper" rating. The description length is at least 6 characters, and name length is at least 3 characters beginning with an english letter or numeral.

  • Why are jobs only available for one platform?

Jobs created in GTA 5 are not “cross-platform.” That is to say a job created on PS4 cannot be played on PC and vice versa. The same applies to jobs on the Xbox One. Unfortunately, this is due decisions made by Rockstar Games. The only type of jobs that can be players across all platforms are Rockstar Created and Rockstar Verified.

  • I noticed that your search engine is far from ideal. Will it be improved?

GTALens is constantly being updated and improved however its resources cannot be compared to Rockstar Games. To get the best search results, try adding quotes around job names if you search for a job with a specific name.

  • I filter jobs by the custom tags and get no results or just a few jobs. Why does it happen? How are such tags added?

Custom tags are added manually by GTALens reviewers. In order to enhance the use of custom tags, the community is encouraged to leave reviews on tracks and add tags.

  • Some tags, such as “Pseudo pitlane” and “Routes unequal” don’t seem to be added manually. How are they added and what do they exactly mean?

These tags are added automatically. The tags are defined as follows:

  • Pseudo pitlane: some creators attempt to incorporate something similar to pit lanes in their races in order to restore your car’s heath. Usually such structures are made up of “wrenches”, a specific pickup that does that. GTALens is capable of detecting such “pit lanes” by counting the number of wrenches that have a specific number of other wrenches in their vicinity.
  • Routes unequal: some races are designed to have two routes with noticeable difference in lengths. Usually some of them require a host to set an even number of laps, and others force players to use specific vehicles. There aren’t too many jobs with the aforementioned functionality, but you can recognize them using this tag.
    • To clarify, the formula is used for unequal routes detection: given max_length and min_length, the following condition is tested: (max_length / min_length) should not be less than a specific threshold (1.11 currently) and the difference between max_length and min_length should not be less than another specific threshold (450 meters currently).
    • Of course, 100% precision is unattainable, but we believe that the current formulas are good enough for most of the cases.
  • Functional pitlane: pitlane system featured in some Rockstar jobs such as Wreck It that actually fixes your vehicle. Can also be encountered in some modded jobs.

Jobs

  • How often job info is updated?

Job info gets fetched from Rockstar servers from time to time on a schedule. The interval between data downloads is determined by multiple factors ranging from 7-10 days to several months.

  • Is it possible to “ask” GTALens to update someone’s job info?

Yes, it is possible to make a request to have jobs imported. To do this, view your profile, and click on the blue hyperlink under the top of the page. Simply post the link of the job you would like to import and click “Submit.” You may also request jobs on behalf of other users. Once one job is added, the rest of a user's jobs will be added as well. You may make a request once every hour.

  • What happens if I publish a new job? When will it appear on the site?

Our robot checks for new jobs periodically; the more jobs you have the shorter this interval. It might take a few days, weeks or even months before the next check for non-registered users. Once you are registered, this process takes much less time, no more than 12 hours should pass before your job becomes available on GTALens.

  • What happens when I delete my job from Social Club?

When you delete a job, it will eventually be removed from GTALens. Again, due to the fetching process, this may take some time. Removed jobs are indicated by a grayscale image with a red “Deleted” tag. Only you will be able to see your deleted jobs.

  • Are jobs publicly available for everyone?

Yes. Jobs are public on GTALens just as they are on Social Club.

User Ranking

  • What is the number next to my avatar?

The number next to your avatar is your “Global Creator Rating.” See “ How is user ranking determined” below. Clicking on your ranking will take you to the list from your platform.

  • Wait, what numbers!? I don’t have any.

This is probably due to your profile not having any jobs. As mentioned previously, fetching of jobs is not automatic and it can take some time before your jobs are added. When you first register for GTALens, it can take up to an hour before jobs begin to populate on your profile. In the case that you have not published a job, you will not have a rating because there is no data for your profile.

  • How is user ranking determined?

User jobs taken from the "Community - Select" category are examined taking into account their rating without quits and disconnections (proper rating), max number of players, and average rating of all selected jobs. Based on this, every job gets a score and all the scores are added up. This sum is your final rating. If your rating is equal or higher than X, you are considered a "top creator". In simple terms, the more quality jobs you have published, the higher your rating should be.

  • I see that some users have published a lot of jobs of questionable quality and are quite high in the overall rating. How is this fair?

Unfortunately it is not possible to detect the quality of a job based solely on data. In addition to this, quality is subjective and some users may like things you have no interest in.

Misc

  • I have a suggestion/bug report/question/etc. How do I contact GTALens staff?

You can either use the following email: admin@gtalens.com or join the GTA Content Creator Hub Discord server (https://invite.gg/cchub).